Looking for something to do on Friday night? Then we thoroughly recommend booking your tickets to watch The HandleBards perform The Taming of the Shrew at Lancaster castle. Here’s a fantastic blog they wrote for us, good luck with the bike ride tomorrow ladies!
Our shows at Lancaster Castle will be the end of our first month on the road, after having cycled from London with all of our set, props and costumes in tow. The rehearsal process feels like such a long time ago! Since then, we’ve performed in over 20 different venues, to around 2500 people, and we’ve had so many adventures along the way.
The thing that none of us realised was quite how tough the cycles were going to be – every day we wake up at around 8am, have breakfast and pack up all of our belongings, before jumping on our bikes and heading out on a ride for about 30 miles. Absolutely everything we need is carried with us – our own personal items, anything we need to fix the bikes, some tents and sleeping bags, and all of the crazy equipment we use in the show. In total we’re carrying about 200kg of stuff between five of us – four in the cast and one stage manager. Regardless of weather, and regardless of the hills between us and our next venue, we have to keep going – and some days are much more difficult than others! Our ride from Preston to Lancaster is set to be an enjoyable one – mainly because it’s mostly flat or downhill. Having made it up through Sheffield and over to Manchester (crossing over the top of the Peak District in the process) we think it’s about time we had an easier ride!
The shows themselves are so much fun to perform – every day brings something different, as with only four people in the cast we need to occasionally enlist the help of an audience member or two to help tell the story. Both of our shows – The Taming of the Shrew and Romeo and Juliet – are played as comedies, so although Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous tragedies in the world, you might not be able to tell that from our show. They’re both full of music, colourful costumes and bicycle-themed props, and something that people often forget is that we carry absolutely everything on our bikes!
We can’t wait to get to Lancaster, and can’t wait to see you there!
The HandleBards
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